Thursday, September 4, 2014

The Curse of the Katy 5K Continues

Keeping up with tradition, we got rain not once, but
twice this year at the annual Michelob Ultra Katy 5K. For the first time in the
run’s 16 year history the race was canceled due to severe weather on the
original date in May. Both the Katy Picnic and race course had been set up, but
shortly before race time the area was struck with tornado speed winds. After surveying the damage to find our start line
destroyed, tents blown over and debris and flooding along the race course we
knew the damage was beyond repair and we had to cancel the event to keep our
participants and volunteers safe.

Fortunately we were able to reschedule and give everyone
involved a second chance. Although the day started off with a bad case of déjà
vu as the weather forecast showed severe storms and baseball size hail in the
hours to come, the weather held off. Thousands of supporters showed on June 12th, to run
the race and attend the party. Close to 50 area restaurants served food to our
hungry runners and of course the Michelob Ultra was in full flow. The run is a
local favorite with the race selling out for the past several years.

The Michelob Ultra Katy 5K is our largest fundraiser of the
year helping us to reach our annual operating goal of $700,000. While we hoped
to net $200,000 from the 5K, we came in just a few thousand shy due to the cost
of setting up the event on both dates.
All-in-all we still chalk this year’s event up as a huge success thanks
to our sponsors, participants, volunteers and 5K committee. Planning has
already started for next year’s event and we look forward to see what Mother
Nature throws at us next!

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About the Friends

The Friends of the Katy Trail is a non-profit organization founded to organize community support for the Katy Trail, to advocate support for the Trail, to raise private funds for the completion of the Trail and to help the City of Dallas plan, build and maintain Trail improvements. Check out our website www.KatyTrailDallas.org